The bit or mouth-piece of a bridle. Hence † Bridle-bitter, a maker of bridle-bits.

1

[c. 1440.  Promp. Parv., 37. Bytt of a brydylle, lupatum.]

2

c. 1500.  Cocke Lorelles B. (1843), 9. Brydel bytters, blacke smythes, and ferrars.

3

1535.  Coverdale, 2 Kings xix. 28. Therfore wyll I put a rynge in thy nose, and a brydle bytt in thy lippes.

4

1640.  Habington, Hist. Edw. IV., 178. Abie to buy the Spurres and Bridle-bits in his Campe.

5

1828–41.  Tytler, Hist. Scot. (1864), I. 189, note. Amid a heap of chaff and dust, lay several human bones, along with a large and powerful bridle-bit.

6